Famous, forgotten, well-known, and obscure visual artists of Chinese descent in the United States

Friday, January 17, 2014

About the Artist: Chu F. Hing

Chu Fook Hing was born on January 17, 1897 in the city of Kapaa on the Kauai island of Hawaii.[1] His father was Chu Kin and his mother was Chong Shee (Miss Chong).[2] Chu was the family name; it was customary in Chinese culture to state the family name first. From China, Chu Kin arrived in Hawaii in 1882.[3] Chong Shee arrived ten years later and they married that year.[4] Chu Kin was a dry goods merchant.[5] Hing was the second of 15 children.[6] Around 1909 the Chu family moved from Kapaa to Hilo, Hawaii.[7]

Nothing is known of Hing's Hawaiian art education but there was evidence of his enthusiasm. A Minnesota newspaper, Duluth News Tribune, published an article on October 13, 1912, about how its fifth and sixth grade students studied geography. The fifth graders mailed picture postcards and letters about Duluth to fifth graders in Arizona, Hawaii and other states. Soon, hundreds of cards arrived.

The most prolific correspondents of the Duluth school children seem to be the fifth graders of Hilo. In addition to dozens of cards from Chu Fook Hing, Chu Fook Tang and Dora Conradt, there are many letters careful and conventional in both English and punctuation, and containing such quaint bits of information as “Hilo is a rainy place and is called in sport the ‘Rainy City.’” “The chief industries of Hawaii are sugar-cane and coffee” and “Each gulch has ever-running streams.”[8]

Hing’s brother, Tang, was a year older.[9] Hing continued making art in junior high and high school. He was 21 years old when he filled out his military registration card on July 31, 1918.[10] Apparently he did not serve in the military. World War I ended three-and-a half months later. The coming year would be one of new opportunities for some of the Chu children.

In 1919, with financial support from his father, Hing decided to go to Chicago for professional training at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Some of Hing’s siblings decided to leave, too. His younger brother, Ngu, was the first to leave for Chicago; he boarded a freighter on July 14. Steaming through the Panama Canal, Ngu landed in Philadelphia on September 1. From there he went to New York where he stayed for two-and-a-half days and then continued to Chicago.[11] Next to leave was Hing who boarded the S.S. Niagara at Honolulu on September 23; he landed at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on September 29.[12] After a week in Vancouver, he departed aboard the S.S. Princess Victoria on October 7 and arrived in Seattle the next day.[13] His younger brother, Fong, followed in December.[14] His sister, Mew Kee, arrived in Chicago in September 1920.[15]

Complying with Chinese Exclusion Act regulations, Hing went to the Seattle immigration office and applied for admission; a case file was opened. He answered, in English, questions by the Examining Inspector of the Immigration Service. Below is his October 8, 1919 testimony.

Q. What is your name? A. Chu Fook Hing.

Q. Give me the date of your birth. A. January 17, 1896. [His World War I draft card said 1897.]

Q. You were born where? A. Kaapa, Hawaii.

Q. Your father's name? A. Chu Kin.

Q. What does he do? A. Tailor

Q. Is he Chinese born or Hawaiian? A. Chinese.

Q. Your mother's name? A. Chong Shee.

Q. Where was she born? A. China.

Q. Are you a full blooded Chinese? A. Yes.

Q. Ever been in China? A. No, I have never been there.

Q. What is your father’s financial standing? A. I don’t know.

Q. You have how many brothers and sisters? A. 14.

Q. Has your father had more than one wife? A. Only one.

Q. How many of your brothers and sisters are in the United States? A. One.

Q. What is his name? A. Chu Fook Ng You [sic].

Q. How old is he? A. Between 17 and 18.

Q. When did he come to the mainland? A. Reached Chicago September 8th this year.

Q. How does it come you didn’t come together? A. Couldn’t get a boat; traffic all tied up at San Francisco; he went by way of the Panama Canal and worked his way up through Philadelphia.

Q. What is your brother doing here? A. He is studying automobile business.

Q. And you are going to do what? A. Study art; I am going to study at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

Q. Who will support you? A. My father (presents Certificate of Identity 2012 issued at Honolulu January 12, 1909 to Chu Fook Hing, aged 13, height 4' 4"; scar on first finger of left hand).

Q. It will be necessary for you to bring to this office a photograph for identification purpose. A. Yes.[16]

Hing signed the transcript of his testimony and his entry was approved. A black-and-white photograph of him was in his file.[17] Additional information about him was found on the S.S. Princess Victoria passenger list: he had two hundred dollars and was going to meet his younger brother, Ngu, at “1519 Wabash Avenue” in Chicago; “Chicago Academy of Fine Arts” was written after the address; Hing’s height was recorded as “5 feet, 6 inches” and he had a “scar on first finger of left hand”.[18] Hing probably traveled by train to Chicago.

Hing and his brothers have not been found in the 1920 U.S. Federal Census that was conducted in early January. Ngu “took a course in a mechanical school at 1519 South Wabash Avenue”, and his residential address as “1219 S. Wabash.”[19] (He was at the immigration office, on May 18, 1920, applying for a new certificate of identity, a document with a photograph of the applicant and a serial number; this identification document was a another requirement of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Unfortunately, Ngu was not asked for the addresses of his brothers.) The census listed 16 people at 1219 South Wabash including two Chinese restaurant workers but not Ngu, who may have moved there after the census.[20] That location was about a mile north of Chinatown and about a mile south of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts was founded by Carl N. Werntz in 1903, and, in 1916, located at 81 East Madison Street.[21] Art Education in the Public Schools of the United States published a description of the academy, “The school is a private unendowed school supported by tuition fees. The normal course includes charcoal and color work from life, still life, flowers, etc.; principles of design, composition and color, applied design, perspective, construction work, pedagogy, physiology, psychology and history of art.”[22] A Handbook of American Private Schools said the academy “gives instruction in fine, decorative, and normal art and dress design, with emphasis on the vocational and commercial aspects”.[23] The academy was notable for having a number of students who became cartoonists including Walt Disney (1917),[24] Roy Crane (1920),[25] Hal Foster (1921),[26] and C.C. Beck (1928).[27] (This school should not be confused with the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, of 1879, that changed its name to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1892.[28].)

Both the Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute had male and female students. Maybe at one of those institutions, Hing met another aspiring artist, Helga Marie Jensen, who had immigrated from Copenhagen, Denmark in 1922.[29] Exactly how and where they met is not known but the mutual attraction was genuine; they married in 1923.[30] Coincidentally, they shared the same birth date.[31] She probably met Hing’s brother, Ngu, and sister, Mew Kee. Hing also attended the Art Institute of Chicago. The Chicago Tribune, June 17, 1922, reported that Hing was one of four recipients of the Frederick Magnus Brand Memorial prize for composition.[32] In a 1966 letter to Mrs. Paepcke, asking for her help to exhibit Hing’s paintings at the Art Institute, Helga wrote: “...he has excellent grades from there”.[33] At some point Hing and Helga completed their schooling and sought work. Eventually they decided to look elsewhere to start a new life.

In June 1925 they made their way from Chicago to San Francisco where they boarded the S.S. President Taft on June 27 and sailed for Hawaii. On July 3 they arrived at Honolulu.[34] Helga was introduced to the rest of the Chu family. Presumably Hing and Helga found work and pursued their artistic endeavors. For some reason, Helga returned to the mainland, through Los Angeles, on May 14, 1926.[35] She stayed until January 6, 1928 when she sailed aboard the S.S. President Madison to Honolulu; she arrived six days later.[36]

Eleven months later on December 21, 1928, Hing and Helga departed on the S.S. Sierra from Honolulu; they arrived in San Francisco on December 27 and continued on to Chicago.[37] According to the 1930 U.S. Federal Census, the couple resided at the Lincoln Park Arms Hotel, located at 2738 Pine Grove Avenue. Hing’s occupation was commercial artist in the printing industry; Helga’s occupation was listed as none.[38] They took in all that Chicago had to offer. In the same 1966 letter, Helga wrote: “Hing has one hundred and 20 beautiful watercolors from Chicago early mornings and evenings. They are from our young days when we walked the shores of the lake....O how we long to see Michigan Ave, the Art Institute and walk the shores as in the old days”.[39] As the nation staggered through the Great Depression, Hing and Helga looked eastward.

“Late Summer; Forset Preserve, Chicago”, 1934

Hing’s signature in Chinese and English

In the 1930’s the artistic couple gradually made their way to New York City. A watercolor by Hing titled “Twilight, Central Park, N.Y., At the Moll [sic]” was dated April 26, 1935.[40] The New York Times, July 13, 1936, reported the results of a contest, for art school students, for the best painting of the Tudor City tulip gardens. Hing, a Wood Ridge, New Jersey resident, was one of four artists who received honorable mention.[41]

In November 1936 Hing had two watercolors, “Sunset Over Belmont Harbor” and “Early Morning in November”, exhibited in the Thirty-Fourth Annual Water Color Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The catalogue listed his address as 136-05 Sanford Avenue, Flushing, New York.[42] The following year Hing was in the Thirty-Fifth Annual Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition with a tempera painting titled, “Devil Dancers; Tibet”.[43] Helga may have referred to it or a similar painting in her 1966 letter: “Hing has beautiful compositions from Shakespears [sic] Tempest and from the Devil Dancers of Tibet”.[44]

Helga departed New York on December 13, 1938 bound for Copenhagen to visit her sister Ester. On May 22, 1939, Helga returned home aboard the S.S. Queen Mary that had sailed from Cherbourg, France and then from Southampton, England.[45] The year 1939 marked a high point in Hing’s artistic career; in Helga’s 1966 letter she wrote: “Hing had 2 watercolors exhibited at Le Salon Paris in the spring of 1939.”[46] Helga returned home to a major event in her neighborhood, the New York World’s Fair that had opened April 30. While the fair celebrated the world of tomorrow, the world was just months away from Germany’s invasion of Poland.

The 1940 U.S. Federal Census recorded Hing and Helga in Queens, New York, at 136-05 Sanford Avenue. Hing’s occupation was commercial artist in the printing industry.[47]

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the world war. A massive military draft was underway; a draft registration card for Hing has not been found. As the draft enlisted more comics artists, replacements were needed. In 1943, Hing found work at Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies Inc.[48] In an interview conducted by Jim Amash for Alter Ego, Leonard Starr, who was also at Funnies, Inc., said: “…Chu Hing, who did nice work and boasted he had studied with Harvey Dunn—but his characters’ eyes always looked Oriental when he drew them, no matter who they were…He was very, very proud of himself…”[49] Later, Hing was on staff at Timely Publications, which would evolve into Marvel Comics. Artist Pierce Rice joined Timely in 1948 and recalled how the bullpen operated:

…“One of the mistakes Stan [Lee] made is whenever a penciler finished a job, he’d have him hand it to an inker.” Rice said. “Whichever inker was free. No partnerships developed, and no continuity.” He lived in fear of two inkers on the staff: Hing Chu and Fred Eng. “I used to dread the thought of something falling into Fred’s hands, but we had no choice in the matter.”[50]

Hing was part of a small group of Asian Americans working on comic books. Ben Oda was lettering for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Early in his career Bob Fujitani worked at Eisner & Iger, Hillman, and MLJ.[51] Min Matsuda, Irving Watanabe and John Yakata were on the staff at the Biro-Wood shop.[52] Helen Chou, Fred Eng, Morrie Kuramoto, Tsung Li, and Kaem Wong were contributors at various publishers.[53] Syndicated comic strip artist Paul Fung produced art for National Comics’ All Funny Comics among others.[54]

As early as 1944, Hing and Helga were living in Larchmont, New York, a suburb of New York City.[55] As they had done in Chicago, they walked along the shoreline, in this case, of Long Island Sound. Hing commuted to the Funnies Inc. office at 45 West 45th Street,[56] and later to the Empire State Building where Timely was located.[57]

In addition to art and comics, Hing explored other business opportunities. On August 10, 1942, Hing obtained a copyright on his “convertible loose wing & fixed tip vacuum wing, tailless kite, with sound effect”.[58] Apparently, this kite was the first of several projects that Hing and Helga copyrighted. Here are their works and company names from the Catalogue of Copyright Entries.

Some of the copyrighted items were also patented. From 1944 to 1947, they filed five patent applications, and all were granted. The inventors’ names on the documents read: “Hing F. Chu and Helga M. Chu, Larchmont, N.Y.”

On October 9, 1951 Helga returned from trip to Denmark; the air passenger manifest has her address as “Larchmont Acres, Larchmont, N.Y.”[73] (A photograph of a Larchmont Acres apartment complex can be viewed at the Larchmont Historical Society web site.) In the early 1950s Hing’s comic book work ended.[74] Apparently the couple had not been able to get their kites, doll and toys produced. With limited finances, they eventually moved out of New York.

By 1966, but probably earlier, Hing and Helga were in Honolulu, Hawaii, living on their Social Security checks.[75] On May 6 of that year Helga wrote a letter to Mrs. Elizabeth Paepcke who was married to Walter Paul Paepcke, the founded the Container Corporation of America. (“With Walter, Elizabeth became an important figure in the cultural and social life of Chicago. She was involved in the Art Institute, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera and numerous other organizations.”[76])

Dear Mrs. Paepcke,

Please listen to my prayer. I am Helga Chu. I would ask you because I know how generous and sympathetic you are. Hing is going blind. The doctors here, Dr. Fouljner and other, have given him 3 more months and the last light will be going out forever.[77]

In her letter Helga laments that the local art academy was not interested in exhibiting Hing’s art. She also revealed the tension between them and Hing's family.

We are both very depressed. Hing's family does not care if we live or die. To them I have never been more than a Polack [sic] as his sisters call me or an old hag.[78]

Helga still had hope of returning to Chicago and she shared her idea with Mrs. Paepcke.

Hing and I were 69 years of age on January 17. We are receiving Social Security of 180 dollars a month and from July doctors and hospitals are free. We have a life insurance of 2 tousand [sic] dollars...We can borrow 1000 dollars and come to Chicago...I am sure I can find a nice little studio in Chicago and we will live there.[79]

How Mrs. Paepcke responded is not known. Helga and Hing remained in Honolulu. Fourteen months later Hing passed away August 1967.[80] Fourteen years later Helga passed away July 1981.[81]

• • •

Special thanks to the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library for permission to use Helga Chu’s letter from the Elizabeth H. Paepcke Papers, and to Avery B. Chumbley for his assistance in Hawaii.

Today is Hing’s birthday. His portrait of Helga is here. A painting by Helga, below, was on eBay.

22. James Parton Haney, Art Education in the Public Schools of the United States (New York: American Art Annual, 1908) 334, <http://books.google.com/books?id=oOpJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA334&lpg=PA334&dq=%22chicago+academy+of+fine+arts%22&source=bl&ots=7mcC-WwofD&sig=M0lmE51OFNp6xMhEKjAgfbfPQgM&hl=en&ei=PIApS_m4BYvllQfUq5GZBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=%22chicago%20academy%20of%20fine%20arts%22&f=false>.

Hi my name in Andrew Raymond - i live in the UK - a few months ago purely by chance a friend of mine came across a portrait of Helga painted by her husband - in the picture Helga is playing a guitar - i currently own the guitar which is one of my most treasured possessions - i would love a copy of that picture if it would be at all possible

Thanks, Alex. Great work. You should also cast a belated thanks to Pierce Rice who taught me how to 'see' Hing's inks among the masses splashed down by the late '40s Timely Bullpen. Though he didn't care much for them, he could spot them for me. (|:{>

Here is the known (and most definitely not-complete) listing of his comic work in the Grand Comics Database-much of which not confirmed, but a start for anyone wishing to track down his comic work:http://www.comics.org/credit/name/Chu%20Hing/sort/alpha/